Cultural policies and urban change in five West European port cities since the early 1990s

The research project aims to provide a better understanding of the relationship between cultural policies and the changing identities and cultural life of five West European port cities: Liverpool, Newcastle-Upon Tyne, Marseilles, Genoa and Naples. The main focus is on how these cities have since the early 1990s used local cultural resources to respond to economic decline, and find new niches in the global economy. The study considers also how culture-led urban regeneration strategies have been influenced by trends towards multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism, and by changes in the spheres of ideology, technology and cultural production.